Chhattisgarh assembly polls 2023: Congress pins all hopes on Baghel

Baghel will be contesting from his stronghold Durg from where he won the assembly polls five times.

Claiming to have placed the state on the path to progress, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is eyeing a second consecutive term in Chhattisgarh. In 2018, the Congress had not declared a chief ministerial face. However, the party is pinning its hope on Baghel in the 2023 assembly polls.

With repeated assurance “Kaka abhi zinda hai (Your uncle is still alive),” at his outreach programme across the state’s 90 assembly segments, which began in May last year, Baghel is said to have won the hearts of the rural population with his slew of pro-agricultural measures. After taking oath in 2018, he waived off farmer loans within two hours. The Baghel administration also increased the MSP on paddy. Further, procurement of paddy at an increased rate also won several hearts.

Also read: Can BJP stage a comeback with Mahadev betting app allegations?

Ahead of the 2023 assembly polls, the BJP manifesto tried to match the promises of the Baghel regime by offering higher procurement price for paddy, along with Rs 12,000 every year to married women and gas cylinders at Rs 500. However, the Congress went ahead and promised another farm loan waiver, Rs 500 subsidy on gas cylinder refills, and Rs 15,000 annual financial assistance to all women. Baghel has also launched a programme to purchase cow dung for Rs 2 per kilogramme.

Over the years, the BJP has used Hindutva as its main plank in most state polls. However, in Chattisgarh, owing to Baghel’s narrative, it was different. “Even Amit Shah, in his Bilaspur speech, talked about paddy procurement first, and only brought up the promise of a free tour to Ayodhya for poor people at the end. Anywhere else, Ram Lalla would have come first and farmers last. For the first time in Chhattisgarh, political debates were centred around paddy,” senior Bilaspur-based journalist, Rudra Awasthi, told Indian Express.

When Baghel took over as the chief of the Congress state unit in 2014, the party was still reeling from the impact of losing its top rung leaders in the Jhiram Ghati Maoist massacre. He is credited for helping the party revive and paved the end of the BJP regime of 15 years in 2018. He led Congress to an unprecedented victory in 2018, winning 68 of the 90 seats in Chhattisgarh. According to the NITI Aayog data of 2020-21, Chhattisgarh was ranked among the best performers in the field of gender equality. While the issue of Maoist trouble still persists, the state government claimed a marked reduction in incidents of Left Wing Extremism (LWE). As per the data released by the Baghel government on October 2, LWE incidents have seen a 52 percent decline over the last five years.

Baghel will be contesting from his stronghold Durg from where he has won the assembly polls five times. In one of the assembly segments - Patan - he is also pitted against his nephew and BJP candidate Vijay Baghel. However for Baghel, the end of November 17 does not mean time to rest. “The elections are on in Rajasthan and Telangana. If the party asks me, I shall be going there to campaign too,” he told Firstpost.